


Taken

by myotishia



Series: Call of the void [8]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:00:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22654402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myotishia/pseuds/myotishia
Summary: Ianto's gone missing and his place looks to be ransacked. The team rush to find him before the worst happens.New reader? Start righthere
Relationships: Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Owen Harper/Toshiko Sato
Series: Call of the void [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1580095
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Taken

Gwen rolled over and reached out to her phone on the bedside table. Work. 

“Bloody Torchwood.” Rhys grumbled lightly, still half asleep.

Four twenty in the morning. Must be important. She hit the green answer button.

“Hello? What’s up?” She mumbled groggily, swinging her legs off the bed.

Jacks voice was low and uncertain. “Ianto’s missing.”

She was suddenly very awake. “What? What do you mean?”

“He’s gone. He went to sleep at his place because I had a late meeting. I just turned up to see if he was still awake and his front door is open. There’s been a fight in here.”

“I’ll be right with you. Want me to call the others?” She asked, the phone pinned between her shoulder and ear as she grabbed for some clean clothing.

“I’ll call them. Just get here asap.” He hung up without waiting for an answer. 

Rhys sat up, feeling Gwen shoot out of bed. “The world ending?”

“Ianto’s been kidnapped.”

“Eh?” He too became very much awake, as if he’d been slapped. “By who? Or what?”

“Don’t know yet. Jack’s just found his place ransacked and he’s gone. I don’t know when I’ll be back.” She sat on the edge of the bed as she tugged on her socks. 

“Keep me updated. If I can help-”

“Just keep Anwen safe. We don’t know if it’s only Ianto that’s going to be targeted.”

“Keep yourself safe too.” 

She smiled and slipped on her boots. “I will. I love you.” 

“Love you too.” He gave her a quick kiss before she was off, running to the car with her coat over her arm and her bag haphazardly hooked on her shoulder. 

Jack was found sitting on Iantos doorstep looking like he was barely holding himself together as Owen, Tosh and Elise arrived. Tosh pulled Owen past and into the place Ianto called home while Elise sat by Jack. 

“We’ll find him.” She said softly, resting a hand on his. “I promise.”

“I know… I should have gone with him.”

“Stop it. This isn’t your fault. What’s it like in there?”

“A mess. There were a few spots of blood but not a lot. He fought whatever took him.”

“Course he did. And he’s going to keep fighting until we rescue him.”

“He’s immortal now… I know if they realise that he-”

“Oi! None of that. For all we know he’s just locked somewhere with barely a scratch, with some twatbasket writing out a ransom note. Yea?”

“Yea. Sorry, I need to pull myself together.”

“No, you have a bit of a breakdown now so later on you can hold them while I punch them until they throw up their lungs.”

“You shouldn’t joke like that. I’m going to start thinking you mean it.”

“I do mean it. No one hurts Ianto.”

“What happened to the girl who’d never hurt a fly.”

“I think she’s still in here. I’ve just learned bottling up my aggression only ends with me hurting people I care about so I let it out at appropriate times. Sorry if I get … Scary sometimes.”

“I’m more worried about who this job is turning you into.”

“It isn’t the job that changed me. Not really. It was the rift that did that.”

“That isn’t part of you anymore.”

She looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “You know that isn’t true. It’s still there, just sleeping. Like a weevil in a cell. It doesn’t stop it existing just because it’s contained. You don’t have to worry though, Tosh and Owen keep me grounded.”

“Thanks for sitting here, I know you want to be in there, helping.” 

“I’d just get in the way. Let the big brains do what needs to be done.”

He chuckled softly and brushed her fringe over her face as Gwen approached. 

Ianto opened his bleary eyes, his head still pounding and his wrists aching from the rough ropes bound too tightly around them. He could hear an engine, diesel, heavy. Maybe an old van or a truck. The taste of copper filled his mouth from his split lip and realising it was there made it sting bitterly. His memory of how he’d got there slowly returned with each pulse of pain in his head. He’d just gotten home, unlocked his front door, kicked off his shoes and turned the heating on even before the lights. It was just the routine. If Jack wasn’t with him anyway. Next was the kettle. The button clicked into place but the front door didn’t. It should have. It always did. That too was part of the routine. A routine that was now shattered and everything fell into horribly sharp contrast. He had one hand on his phone and the other reaching for the fire axe that was no longer in the kitchen. It was in the bedroom because of course it was. Never there when it was needed. He leaned close to the kitchen door and tried to look out into the hallway. He was suddenly face to face with a man who was about half a head taller than him and had a smile that made his stomach lurch. He felt the fist hit his jaw before he saw it. The phone skittered across the floor and as Ianto recovered his senses the man brought his boot down onto the device, smashing it into pieces. Wiping the blood from his lip, Ianto grabbed the kettle that had been bubbling away to itself and threw it at his attacker. Boiling water exploded across the attackers face and chest, the plastic and metal casing of the kettle cracking open with the force. Taking the chance he grabbed a knife from the block on the work surface and rammed past the intruder, heading towards the bedroom for the fire axe. On Iantos bed, with the axe in hand, Huw Sherman sat. 

“Looking for this?” He asked, mockingly, twirling the weapon in his hands.

“You should be in prison.”

“Stay quiet and play nice for long enough and you can find a way out.”

“If you’re going to kill me just do it.”

He laughed. “We will, but not here, not now.” Huw stood, getting a good grip on the axe.

Ianto turned and ran. Maybe he could get out and borrow a neighbours phone. The horribly scalded man stood guarding it and that meant he was trapped. There was no flight, only fight and he’d be damned if he was just going to give up without one. He gripped the handle of the knife tightly, stabilising his stance. It wasn’t a sword but he hoped the skills were transferable to a kitchen knife. Huw tried to slam the blunt top of the axe into Iantos back but he deflected it, slid past and swiped across the ex police officers arm, blood spattering up the wall from the gash that was left. The knife didn’t have anywhere near the reach he was used to and getting up close like that was inadvisable at best. He needed to get them both in his line of sight. Never turn your back on your opponent. He moved into the living room so he wasn’t surrounded anymore.

“You’ve got nowhere to go.” Huw hissed, holding the axe in his left hand as he kept his right arm to his chest, trying to stem the bleeding. 

“Well, I do plan to stay right here.” 

The bleeding man swiped with the axe, back and forth, always just out of reach. This would be a long and expensive cleanup, one that Ianto decided at that moment wasn’t worth it. He was moving as soon as this was over. His neighbours had already moved out, why not follow. Huw lodged the axe into the wall and Ianto took his chance, stabbing the knife through the mans good arm, getting it jammed in the bone. The burned man charged, slamming into the wall as Ianto shifted out of the way and let momentum do his job for him. He sprinted for the door but felt Huw kick him in the back of the knee, sending him tumbling to the floor. He barely had a moment to rethink before the ex police officers boot was brought down on the back of his head.

He snapped back into the present. They were moving him, but where? And what did they have planned? He wished his lip would hurry up and heal. Then again, he suspected that wouldn’t be the worst pain he was going to be in if these people had their way. He just had to stay calm and hope Jack would realise he was gone. 

The only thing anyone heard from the med bay was Owen shout. “What the fuck?!” 

Everyone ran to see what was going on, but Jack was the only one who asked.

“What is it?”

“The blood belongs to that sodding copper from the beacons! The hell is he doing out of prison?” 

Gwen bit the inside of her cheek. “He kept silent for the whole trial. Eye witness testimony only goes so far. He went away for helping them cover everything up but with good behaviour he could easily be out by now.”

“There’s no way in hell he could take Ianto down one on one. What about the rest of those freaks?”

“The rest of them confessed. They’ll never see the outside of a jail cell ever again.”

“Then who could he be working with? How did he get Iantos address?”

“Even with what happened he might have friends in the force, they might have done the research for him but they wouldn’t take part in a kidnapping. It has to be part of the original group. Maybe someone who wasn’t there last time.”

Tosh wordlessly walked back to her workstation. She had a hunch but she needed to check it. She pulled up the records of tenancy and ownership for all of the buildings in Brynlaedd and compared it to the list of those arrested. There were names that didn’t appear in the latter. One family had moved the year before due to financial issues, but were only living two towns over. Another had only moved five months before. They’d moved to be closer to their business. An abattoir. One that had shut down around the time Mr Sherman was released. She found a map and any other information about the building. It should have been empty but they were still employing a night guard to patrol the place. She jumped slightly as she realised Jack was watching over her shoulder. 

“Send all that to the SUV. I’ll bring him back.” He said.

“You’re not going on your own!” Gwen announced sharply. “They hurt one of us, they hurt all of us.”

Elise nodded in agreement. “They’re going to pay for what they’ve done.” 

“Well then, looks like I’m going too. Can’t have you mortals running around without a medic.” Owen insisted as he pulled off his lab coat and replaced it with his usual jacket. 

Tosh just stood and headed to the garage without another word. Ianto was her friend and she wasn’t just going to wait at the hub. She needed to go with them. 

Ianto heard the doors to the van open and pretended to still be unconscious. A voice he recognised as the man he’d burned spoke first.

“This fucking hurts. I didn’t sign up for this!”

“It’s just like a bad sunburn, stop complaining.” Huw growled. “At least you don’t need stitches. He didn’t fight like that last time.”

“From what I heard he didn’t need to. I heard some bloke saved him with a tractor and a shotgun.” 

“Crazy bastard drove right in. Oi, you two, get him into storage. Out here I don’t think I could stop myself slitting his throat.”

Ianto was roughly manhandled out and half carried through two sets of double doors. He knew he was outnumbered so playing dead was the plan. They untied his wrists and replaced the rope with shackles before placing the chain on a hook hanging from the ceiling. Once he heard the door close he opened his eyes. The walls were metal and covered in a thin layer of frost. It was a walk in fridge. He was almost thankful that the rest of the hooks were empty. Maybe the cold would just numb him to sleep and he’d revive later. No, they didn’t plan on killing him like that, not yet. The chain was pulled taught so he couldn’t unhook himself. At least not without a little climbing. The blood had almost returned to his hands as he pulled himself up, vowing to lose a little weight or go to the gym. He was never good at pull ups. Push ups he could do, but lifting himself up was always so much more difficult. Once in line with the hook he needed to move his hands up the chain faster than he fell, otherwise he risked pulling his shoulder out of joint. One… Two… Three… He grabbed the upper chain just in time and unhooked his shackles before dropping to the floor. It was then he realised he wasn’t wearing any shoes and the floor was very cold. Of course it was cold, he scolded himself, he was in a fridge. The whole place smelled like the air outside of the butchers shop. He always hated that smell. He certainly didn’t want it to cling to him. He needed to find a way out, somewhere with a window, an office. The door clunked open and he clenched his jaw, hoping he hadn’t been heard. Slipping out into the hallway he crept along, very aware of the fact that any of the people there would gladly take him apart if they realised he was free. He held his hands together so the shackles didn’t make a noise. 

The first set of double doors he came to led into cattle pens. No windows. Keep going. The next looked like some kind of packing area. No windows but there was a large garage style door to allow loading and unloading from trucks. It was a way out. He let himself into the room and made his way to the doors. A thick padlock held the door closed. 

“Shit!” He breathed to himself. There had to be another way out. Voices drifted in from the hallway and he ducked behind a crate that had been left. A man and woman entered.

“And after Huw gets his little revenge? The police are going to be after him.” The woman grumbled softly. 

“How long until the police come after us anyway. Huw and George botched their plan.”

“No they didn’t. Weren’t you listening?” She lit a cigarette and took a long drag. 

“Honestly, no. I just space out when he starts moaning about this and that.”

“He wants that lads friends to turn up. I heard George say he’s going to feed him to them. Sounds a bit sick to me.”

“This whole thing’s a bit sick. You knew that when you married me.”

“And you promised I wouldn’t have to take part.”

“You’re not.”

“I’m in a sodding slaughterhouse at the arse crack of dawn, listening to your little gang ranting about eating some lad they dragged in. Sounds like taking part to me.”

“You can leave if you want.”

“And leave you with the rest of those morons? Not a chance. Anyway, I don’t plan to be the one on the hook next.”

“I wouldn’t let them. I promise.”

“You promised you were done when we left, Arty. So much for that.”

“You know how much I owe Huw.”

“One assault charge isn’t worth this.”

“Look… Why don’t we just go. We’ll pretend this never happened.”

“Finally some sense from you.” She stomped out her cigarette. “Come on, we can be far away before they realise.” 

He led her to the second door. “Sandra… I really am sorry. About all of this.”

“I know.”

“No… I’m sorry.” He grabbed her around the throat and slammed her against the wall, choking her. “You’ll tell someone. I know you will. You’re too honest.” 

Ianto grabbed a thick chain which had been left and swung it, hitting Arty in the back of the head and knocking him out cold. Sandra coughed, in shock at being attacked by her husband. 

“Are you ok? We need to get out of here.” He crouched next to her. 

She looked at him, tears spilling down her face. “He tried to kill me.”

“I know. I’m sorry, but he’s not going to be knocked out for long so we have to go.”

“Ok.” She whimpered, following him as he reached the door, checking to see if the coast was clear. They shuffled out and into the corridor, carefully creeping towards the front of the building where there would most likely be a door of some kind. Even a fire exit would do.

“Do you have a car?” He whispered.

“Yea.”

“If we get seen you need to run to your car. I’ll keep them busy. Go to the nearest police station.”

“But I… I was part of this.”

“I’ll tell them you were brought in with me.”

“... What’s your name?”

“Ianto.”

“We’ll both get out. You saved my life.”

“You’re more optimistic than I am.” He spotted their way to freedom. Rushing ahead he pressed the handle and it swung open before stopping as a chain had been wrapped around the handle on the outside. It wasn’t wide enough for him to squeeze through but Sandra was a waif like woman. 

“I’ll push the door as hard as I can, you slip through the gap.”

“What about you?”

“Just… Stick to the plan.”

“I’ll come back for you.”

“You have to escape first. Go on.” He pushed the door, the chain rattling as it was pulled taught. Sandra squeezed through, getting free just as they heard shouts from the other end of the hallway. He let go of the door and looked for somewhere to hide, or even run. He was trapped no matter which way he went but maybe there was some machinery he could take cover behind in the processing area. He pushed through the double doors and surveyed the room. He sincerely hoped he wasn’t going to end up on one of the hanging hooks used to transport the carcasses. He sprinted over to one of the larger pieces of machinery, deciding he didn’t want to know what it had once been used for. He slid just behind it as two of the sets of doors opened.

“He can’t have gone far! Come on, I’m impressed you escaped the fridge. I underestimated you.” Huw called out, swinging the fire axe by his side. 

George, the burned man who looked more like a blistered lobster than a person, dragged a bat across the floor. The sound filling the relatively empty room. There was nowhere to go. Ianto was completely outnumbered and the door to the outside was guarded by a man who had, until this point, been sleeping. 

Maybe he could just charge past him. He just had to reach the door. Then it would be a free sprint. The man by the door looked directly at Ianto and that was all he needed as a signal that it was now or never. He closed half of the gap before the fire axe sliced partially through his calf. He hit the floor and skidded to a stop. Before he could even try and get back up someone was kneeling on the back of his neck.

“So close. You almost made it. Just like old times.” Huw chuckled. “Can’t have that happening again. George, make sure he can’t go anywhere.”

Ianto braced himself for whatever they had planned. 

George smirked and shouldered the bat. “This is for my face.” He brought the bat down onto Iantos leg, just above the ankle. Once, twice… Ianto passed out before it was over. 

Noone had said a word on the drive, not even to complain about Jacks borderline suicidal driving style. They were all on the same wavelength so it didn’t matter. Stepping out they saw the front gate had been run over by someone making a quick exit. They hoped it had been Ianto. The building itself was as large and dreary as you’d expect, the few windows boarded up and chains around the handles of the fire exits. There was only one door that wasn’t chained closed.

“We all know this is a trap.” Gwen said, breaking the long silence.

Jack glared at the door, the morning light accentuating his icy blue eyes with its firey orange hue. “They think it is.”

Two men rounded the sides of the building holding shotguns. Without a moment of hesitation Jack shot one in the head and then the second one in the torso. He was done playing nice. He’d wanted to execute these monsters the first time but he’d been convinced they should face the rest of their sorry lives in prison. He wouldn’t be convinced a second time. The front door splintered under the force of his boot the moment it connected. 

It was quiet inside, too quiet. 

Jacks heart dropped as he looked up to see Ianto hanging by his shattered ankles, gagged and shirtless, blood seeping from slowly healing gashes across his chest. A shot rang out, slamming through the captains leg and dropping him to his knees. Tosh hunkered down next to him and set off the sonic shield, protecting them both and allowing Owen to use it as a springboard. From the slight elevation he could get a good look around and lock on to whoever was armed. Gwen followed having been carefully watching his line of sight. He swept the left side of the room, taking out two. She swept the right, bringing down three. Elise followed last, her blade in one hand, swiping through the chain that held Ianto up and sliding across the floor to catch him before he broke his neck on the hard floor. It was a kind of blessing that he was barely conscious. 

“I’ve got you. It’s going to be ok.” She said softly, untying and pulling the gag from his mouth. Jack crawled over to join them so Tosh could shield them all. 

The captain pulled Ianto into his arms, feeling the cold of his skin. “Can you hear me? Come on Ianto, look at me. Please.” He slipped off his coat and covered his lover with it, blood stains be damned.

“Owen!” Tosh called, prompting him to throw the loaded injector to her. She caught it and pressed it against her injured friends neck. 

Iantos mind swam in the pain haze, begging to be seperate from his battered body. Everything felt so cold and endless until he had a sudden falling sensation and warmth. He couldn’t quite work out from where or what was happening. Everything sounded distant and hollow. Voices. Soft voices. Familiar. He wanted to lean into the warmth he felt around his shoulders but moving wasn’t exactly possible. His legs still screamed as they couldn’t heal correctly with him hanging from them and each breath ached from the slashes carved into his chest. His mind already trying to suppress the memory of them being put there. A sharp sting shot through his neck, pain replaced swiftly by numbness that flooded through him. It became a little easier to think as the intense agony dulled into a vague ache. He could feel the warmth of something covering him, smell that familiar scent that Jack always had but he could never quite place, hear gunshots and voices. He tried to talk but all that left his lips was a slight whimper. 

“I’m here. Don’t try and move.” Jacks voice was soothing. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

Elise gently and carefully unlocked and removed the shackles from Iantos wrists and ankles. “The rest of the doors are locked, right?”

“I think so.” Tosh replied, not looking up from Ianto.

“We can get him out and leave these monsters a present.”

“Present?”

She pulled a device from inside her jacket. “It’ll wipe this place off the map. It’s a localised gravity bomb with an automatic self destruct. As much as I’d love to make them suffer, this will be more efficient and clean. Yes or no Jack?”

“Yes. I want all of this gone.” He said coldly. “Owen, Gwen, fall back. We need to get Ianto out of here.” 

Neither Owen nor Gwen argued, moving to help get Ianto out of harms way as Jack was still limping heavily. Elise set the hand sized device and backed up. Once outside she closed the door, jamming it with a piece of the destroyed gate. Once they were all far enough away she opened her wrist comp and set the limit of the devices effects before activating it. The building, and everyone inside, was crushed inwards in an instant. Metal and concrete crumpling in like a thin paper ball before bursting into an intense blue light, leaving nothing but the huge concrete slab to say anything had ever stood on there. Sirens in the distance said the place would be crawling with very confused police officers soon. 

When Ianto fully regained all his senses he was in the med bay. Owen was watching three different monitors across the room.

“Wha…” The welshman began before Owens sharp turn stopped him.

“Took you long enough. Any pain?”

“No. How long was I out?” 

“Well it’s three o’clock now so too bloody long.”

“Not worried were you?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” A long silence followed.

Owen turned back to the monitors and switched one off. “Listen… If you need to talk about what happened, you know where I am.”

“... Thanks… What happened to those-”

“Dead. Vaporised with the rest of the building. We all wanted a piece of them but you were in worse shape than we thought. I wasn’t sure your immortality was still working but Jack said that some damage takes time to heal if you don’t actually die.”

“Right.”

“You’ll be staying here tonight. Gwen said she’s going to call in a favour to get your place cleaned up.”

“She shouldn’t bother. I’m not going back.”

“I know Jack does it but staying here all the time isn’t healthy.”

“No, I mean I’m going to move. Too many bad things have happened in that place. It doesn’t even feel like home anymore… I don’t think it ever did.”

The doctor sighed and dragged over a chair, sitting backwards on it. “Where were you thinking?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t looked yet.”

“That’s something you can do while you’re not moving much. Once you’ve got a list I’ll check them out for you.”

Ianto was taken aback by Owen being this nice. “Y-you don’t have to.”

“I know I don’t. If I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t… Anyway, you need somewhere safe. Your old place didn’t have half of the security measures it should’ve had. Your windows didn’t even have propper locks.”

“I never really thought about it.”

“You kept an axe by your bed.”

“You keep your gun under your pillow.”

He chuckled softly. “What’s Eli’ been telling you?”

“I knew that before I even met her.”

“This isn’t about me. Tosh says she’ll make sure any locks you have, old place or new, are impossible to pick.”

“They didn’t pick the lock Owen. They just snuck in before the door latched.”

“All the more reason to get better locks. You’re up on your meds aren’t you?”

“Yes. Why?”

“You know why.” Another uncomfortable silence.

“I…”

“Do you have enough here or do you need me to grab them from your old place?”

“I’ve got enough. I’m not going to do anything… Not like that.”

“I have to check.”

“Not that I could.”

“That’s not the point and you know it.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

“Right then.” He stood and pushed the chair back to where it had been. “I promised the others I’d tell them when you were lucid so-”

“Owen?”

“Yea?”

“Thanks.”

He gave a nod then walked out to tell everyone else that Ianto was awake. 


End file.
